Athens and Thessaloniki Hotels See Average Room Rate Rise in 2023

Sea view room in Thessaloniki at the Electra Palace hotel. Photo source: Electra Palace Thessaloniki

Despite lower occupancy levels for hotels in both Athens and Thessaloniki, average room rates and revenue per available room increased in 2023, found data released recently by analytics firm GBR Consulting.

More specifically, according to GBR’s hospitality newsletter, room rates increased “significantly” after June 2022. Indicatively ADR (average daily rate) improved by 29 percent in 2023 compared to pre-pandemic 2019 boosting RevPAR (revenue per available room) by 27 percent.

Although overall occupancy levels in Athens in 2023 were still behind 2019, by 1.5 percent, December saw a 10 percent rise.

Occupancy levels at Thessaloniki hotels also showed signs of recovery in 2023 with ADR up by 25 percent over pre-Covid 2019 levels and RevPAR up by 19.7 percent.

However, occupancy levels for hotels in the northern port city for the year were still down by 4.2 percent on prepandemic figures with the best-performing months in May and September.

Meanwhile, resort hotels recorded a 45 percent rise in 2023 in sales per occupied room boosting total sales per available room up by 42 percent in 2023 over 2019.

Overall, found the GBR report, occupancy levels for Greece’s resort hotels in the April-October were “slightly lower” in both 2023 and 2022 compared to 2019 with an annual 1.8 percent decline over 2019 last year.

Looking ahead, analysts expect tourism to Greece to be in the positive, adding that in 2023, the sector was not affected by high inflation, lower disposable incomes, global economic slowdown and geopolitical conflicts.